Summary: According to a recent study, young parents exhibit the strongest compassionate messages to other people in physical or cultural pain, compared to adolescents and older people. Researchers tracked mental action while participants experienced agonizing situations, finding that empathy responses grow as people get older but grow most quickly in young age.
Older people reported more powerful mental responses to pain, but less severe pain from others, suggesting a disconnect between the amount of empathy felt and the amount of empathy expressed. The findings show the variation of compassion throughout a person’s lifespan, which is influenced by social contexts and exposure to painful situations. This study highlights the importance of emotion in interpersonal relationships and how complex it is.
Important Facts:
- Peak of compassion: Young adults feel pain in others more than children or older people.
- Head vs. Behavior: Older adults show increased mental exercise to pain but price others ‘ pain less effectively.
- Social Influence: Empathy develops across the longevity, shaped by cultural and pain-related experience.
Origin: University of Kent
According to a recent study conducted by the University of Kent’s School of Psychology, emotion messages to others in pain are at their highest in younger age.
Young people are more sensitive to cultural pain, such as those brought on by grief and sadness, and have a stronger sense of empathy for those who experience it than adolescents or older adults do, according to psychologists.
Empathy is a key component of societal connection, enabling people to comprehend and express their feelings with others.
The research, published in the journal,  , Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience,  , explored how empathy responses differ between adolescents ( 10-19 years old ), young adults ( 20-40 years old ) and older adults (60+ years old ), by recording brain activity while participants viewed photographs of people in physically or socially painful situations.
Results revealed that brain responses to agonizing circumstances increased from childhood to younger and older adults.
This demonstrates that as social exposure and cultural experience become more prevalent, caring responses develop throughout life.
While the study found that people’s brain-related responses to dementia become stronger as they age, the improved mental activity in older adults coincides with lower pain ratings for older people.
Professor Heather Ferguson, the lead scientist on the study and Professor of Psychology at Kent, speculates that this is because older people are less adept at expressing their empathy for others than younger people.
This investigation, according to Professor Ferguson, provides valuable insight into the complex nature of compassionate reactions to others in pain. As evidenced by their psychological ratings of the intensity of pain felt by others, compassion responses to others in pain reach their peak in young age.
But, as we age, the brain becomes more and more sensitive to other people’s suffering, suggesting that older people had empathy when they first saw the pain pictures but were less accurate when assessing the intensity of the pain eventually.
Funding:
The German Research Council provided funding for this study.
About this information about neurodevelopment and compassion research
Publisher: Gary Hughes
Source: University of Kent
Contact: Gary Hughes – University of Kent
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Start exposure.
” Neural empathy methods are increased from childhood to older age,” according to Heather Ferguson and al. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Abstract
Neurological compassion mechanisms are involved in both physical and social problems, and they grow from adolescence to older adulthood.
Empathy is a key component of societal connection, enabling people to comprehend and express their feelings with others.
We report a registered test in which 240 individuals, including children, young people, and older people, viewed photos depicting hands and feet in physically or morally distressing situations (versus nonpainful ).
Empathy was measured using EEG chi destruction and imagined problems rankings. Physical anguish was more prevalent than social discomfort, with young adults showing certain sensitivity to cultural pain events as opposed to older adults and adolescents.
Mu desynchronization was greater to problems versus no-pain conditions, but the physical/social environment did not mimic pain messages. From youth to younger and older adulthood, brain responses to unpleasant situations increased exponentially.
These findings emphasize a core empathy network that is active in both physical and social pain contexts, as well as an attentive response that grows over time as social experience accumulates.
